Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver with Intel Core i5-9400 + AMD Radeon RX 7600

This combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 lands at rank 2563 out of 3710 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. The pairing shows a clear pattern across resolutions: the system delivers playable frame rates at 4K, comfortable performance at 1440p, and very high refresh rates at 1080p, with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck only as resolution climbs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2563 out of 3710 tested combinations places it in the 31st percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings tested for Dave The Diver. This is a modest standing, but the raw FPS numbers tell a more nuanced story than the rank alone suggests. At 1080p Medium, the system produces 164 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold most games target. The rank is likely dragged down by the CPU's age rather than any fundamental inability to run this game smoothly.

Looking at the CPU's standalone standing, the Intel Core i5-9400 sits at the 47th percentile among all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rivals in the database are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (scoring 2259, just 0.2% higher), the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, 0.4% higher), the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, 0.3% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, 0.4% lower). This clustering indicates the i5-9400 is right at the edge of a performance plateau where several older processors deliver nearly identical compute results.

The GPU side is more competitive. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 ranks at the 57th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15171. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199, 0.2% higher), the AMD Radeon 680M (15270, 0.7% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro 560X (15082, 0.6% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti (15063, 0.7% lower). The RX 7600's position here suggests it punches slightly above its overall rank, and the game's measured FPS confirms this — the GPU is capable of delivering high frame rates even at demanding settings.

The disconnect between the combo's low rank and its strong measured performance likely stems from how the rank aggregates all tested configurations. Many higher-ranked combos probably include newer CPUs with higher single-thread performance, which matters in a game like Dave The Diver where the CPU must handle game logic swimming, diving, and restaurant management simultaneously.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Dave The Diver smoothly at 4K?

A: Yes, at High settings the average FPS is 74, and at Medium it is 83. Even at Ultra, the average stays at 65 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS standard. Low settings push it to 99 FPS, so there is headroom across all presets.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: At 1440p, the system delivers between 97 FPS (Ultra) and 147 FPS (Low), which makes it ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1080p, the range is even higher, from 129 FPS (Ultra) to 196 FPS (Low), though the CPU may start to limit performance at the lowest settings in this resolution.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, placing it within 0.4% of the Intel Core i7-10710U and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, and within 0.2-0.4% of the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 and Intel Core i3-10305. This means any of these CPUs would deliver nearly identical performance in this game.

Q: Is the RX 7600 a strong GPU for this game?

A: The data says yes. The RX 7600 scores 15171 on average, and in Dave The Diver it produces 110 FPS at 1440p High and 146 FPS at 1080p High. Its nearest rival, the RTX 3050 OEM, scores only 0.2% higher, so the RX 7600 is clearly competitive.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 164 FPS, with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 188 FPS. This means even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays well above 100 FPS.

Q: Does the combo bottleneck at any resolution?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes more of a limiting factor at 1080p Low, where the GPU could theoretically push higher frame rates but the CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads cap performance. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the primary bottleneck, as the FPS drops significantly across all settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache and 256 KB of L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth, and operates on the Intel Socket 1151 platform.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is primarily to manage the game's simulation and logic — the underwater exploration, the restaurant management, and the various NPC interactions. The game is not heavily threaded, as evidenced by the CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 versus a single-core score of 935. The single-core performance is what drives most game logic, and the i5-9400's 4.10 GHz boost clock helps here.

However, the CPU's age shows in its benchmark results. The Geekbench single-core score of 1389 and multi-core score of 5141 place it at the 47th percentile, meaning nearly half of all tested CPUs outperform it. This is not a problem for Dave The Diver specifically, as the measured frame rates demonstrate, but it does mean the CPU could limit performance in more demanding titles or at lower resolutions where the GPU is underutilized.

The 6-thread configuration is a potential concern for modern games that increasingly use more than 6 threads. Dave The Diver appears to handle this fine at higher settings, but at 1080p Low, where the GPU has less work to do, the CPU's thread count may become a limiting factor. The measured FPS at 1080p Low is 196, which is high, but the gap between Low and Medium (164 FPS) suggests the GPU is still doing substantial work at Medium.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), for a total of 12 data points. The system consistently delivers playable frame rates across all configurations.

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are as follows:

• Low: 196 FPS average
• Medium: 164 FPS average, with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 188 FPS
• High: 146 FPS average
• Ultra: 129 FPS average

At 2560x1440, the performance drops but remains strong:

• Low: 147 FPS average
• Medium: 123 FPS average, with a minimum of 105 FPS and a maximum of 142 FPS
• High: 110 FPS average
• Ultra: 97 FPS average

At 3840x2160, the system still holds above 60 FPS for most presets:

• Low: 99 FPS average
• Medium: 83 FPS average, with a minimum of 70 FPS and a maximum of 95 FPS
• High: 74 FPS average
• Ultra: 65 FPS average

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 139 FPS and maximum of 188 FPS show a variance of 49 FPS, indicating the game has some scene-dependent performance swings. At 1440p Medium, the range is 105 to 142 FPS (37 FPS variance), and at 4K Medium, it narrows to 70 to 95 FPS (25 FPS variance). This tightening of variance at higher resolutions suggests the GPU becomes more consistently the bottleneck, reducing CPU-induced frame time spikes.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 164 at 1080p to 123 at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 83 at 4K (a 32% reduction from 1440p). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions — the GPU must render more pixels, so frame rates drop proportionally.

At High settings, the scaling is similar: 146 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p (24.7% drop), and 74 FPS at 4K (32.7% drop from 1440p). The 4K-to-1440p drop is consistently larger than the 1440p-to-1080p drop, which makes sense because the pixel count increase from 1440p to 4K (2.25x) is larger than from 1080p to 1440p (1.78x).

The Low preset shows the most interesting behavior. At 1080p Low, the system hits 196 FPS, but this drops to 147 FPS at 1440p (25% reduction) and 99 FPS at 4K (32.7% reduction from 1440p). The fact that 1080p Low does not exceed 200 FPS suggests the CPU is starting to limit performance at this low-settings, high-FPS scenario. The i5-9400's 6 cores and 6 threads, combined with its single-core performance, appear to be the ceiling here.

Looking at the Ultra preset, the scaling is: 129 FPS at 1080p, 97 FPS at 1440p (24.8% drop), and 65 FPS at 4K (33% drop from 1440p). This consistent scaling pattern across all presets indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at 1440p and above, while the CPU becomes a co-limiter at 1080p Low.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and frame rate. For 4K gaming, the data shows that Ultra (65 FPS) and High (74 FPS) both stay above 60 FPS, but Medium (83 FPS) offers a better margin for demanding scenes. Given the recorded minimum of 70 FPS at 4K Medium, this preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance stability.

For 1440p, the recommendation is High settings at 110 FPS average. This is well above 60 FPS and leaves room for frame rate dips. Ultra at 97 FPS is also viable if visual quality is the priority, but the 13 FPS difference between High and Ultra may not justify the additional GPU load. Medium at 123 FPS is the choice for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors.

For 1080p, the situation is more nuanced. Low settings produce 196 FPS, which exceeds most 144Hz monitors' refresh rates, but the CPU may be limiting at this point. Medium at 164 FPS is the sweet spot for 144Hz displays, offering a 139 FPS minimum that stays above the refresh rate. High at 146 FPS is also suitable for 144Hz, and Ultra at 129 FPS works for 120Hz displays.

The overall recommendation is to use Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p, as this preset offers the best combination of high average FPS and recorded minimums that ensure smooth gameplay. At 4K, Medium (83 FPS) or High (74 FPS) are both excellent choices, with Medium providing more headroom.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, manufactured on a 6 nm process at TSMC. It has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 32 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1720 MHz, a game clock of 2250 MHz, and a boost clock of 2655 MHz, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial: 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, a pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s. These specifications, combined with the memory bandwidth, make the RX 7600 well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, and the measured FPS data confirms this.

In Dave The Diver, the GPU's role becomes increasingly important as resolution rises. At 4K, the GPU must render 8.3 million pixels per frame, and the RX 7600 handles this by producing 65-99 FPS depending on settings. The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s appears sufficient for this game's textures and geometry at 4K, as the frame rates do not collapse at the highest resolution.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its mid-range positioning. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2310, PassMark G3D score of 16634, and Geekbench OpenCL score of 88051 all indicate a GPU that competes with the RTX 3050 OEM (which scores 15199 on average, just 0.2% higher). The RX 7600's 57th percentile ranking among all GPUs means it outperforms most discrete graphics cards in the database.

The RX 7600's 8 GB of VRAM is a consideration for future titles, but for Dave The Diver, the measured results show no VRAM-related stuttering or frame rate drops at 4K Ultra. The GPU's ray tracing cores (32) are present but not heavily utilized in this game, which is an adventure title rather than a ray tracing showcase. The GPU's TDP of 165 W and dual-slot design are reasonable for a mid-range card, and the PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides adequate bandwidth for the 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.